Exploring multistability in marine ecosystems: Insights from food web model dynamics

A.S. Frank, Andrea Pinke, Elizabeth Read, Susanna Röblitz, Susmita Sadhu and Sam Subbey

Ecological Modelling, 2025, vol. 508, issue C

Abstract: This review synthesizes the role of multistability in deterministic food web models of marine ecosystems, focusing on how structural features of ordinary differential equation (ODE) models give rise to multiple stable states. From an initial pool of 178 publications, we systematically selected 35 studies that explicitly report multistability in predator–prey and food web models. These were analyzed according to key structural components – such as functional responses, growth and mortality terms, nonlinearities, and network topologies – to identify the mechanisms underpinning the emergence of bistability, tristability, and higher-order multistability.

Keywords: Multistability; Marine ecosystems; Predator–prey dynamics; Stable states; Bistability; Functional responses; Nonlinearity; Interaction terms; Mortality rates (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:508:y:2025:i:c:s0304380025002315

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2025.111245

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